The Buck

The recent plastic free July challenge has been quite the eye opener, quite the game changer. I never realized just how reliant we are on plastic, especially single use plastic. There is so much out there, not just food, that is packaged in plastic. Most of this plastic is not disposed of properly. I do my part in mitigating this both by taking the initiative and educating when being questioned. I find I spend a fair amount of time at work separating different materials to make them properly recyclable.

I get a few odd looks from both residents and co-workers. I have heard comments like, "Why bother taking so much time to do that? They most likely have people separating it later on." The point is I don't want to wait for someone else to do it, if I have the ability to do it myself and reduce the amount that is wasted, I am happy to take the time to do it, the buck has to stop with me. Correction, the buck has to stop with everyone, a little effort goes a long way. Too many times we think, "Oh, someone else will do that." and it needs to change somewhere. For me, it starts here. Reducing the amount of single use materials I buy and proper disposal of the single use materials I do end up using. The kicker is it's not just plastic, any single use material must be disposed of properly by everyone in order for it to be reused as much as possible.